With the development of international trade routes in the 16th century and establishment of East India trading companies in England, Holland, Denmark and France in the 17th century, large quantities of products including silks, lacquer and especially porcelain from China were exported to the West, where they were highly prized for their decorative and exotic qualities. In general the intense European fascination with all things Chinese was not reciprocated by the Imperial Court in China, with the notable exception of clocks able to operate independently, a form of technology unknown to the Chinese at the t.mes .

The Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), the first European to enter the Forbidden City in Beijing, made a point of offering the Wanli Emperor two chiming clocks as gifts on a visit in 1601, and these created a sensation at court -they were named zimingzhong (self-sounding bells) in Chinese, which the English would later refer to as 'sing-songs' . Henceforth all future trade and evangelical missions by Europeans to China included clocks as tribute for the Emperor, and many high-ranking officials acquired clocks from the Hong merchants in Canton who purchased them from East India Company traders. Both the Emperors Kangxi (reigned 1661-1772) and Yongzheng (reigned 1722-1735) were avid collects ors, and with the help of Jesuit missionaries and Western prototypes available for study were able to develop a local clock manufacturing industry. A letter from the French Jesuit and Horologist Valentin Charlier dated 1736 observed 'the Imperial Palace is full of European clocks, various types and sizes of watches, and carillons, all made by the best craft.mes n in Paris and London. There are over 4,000, and I have cleaned or repaired most of them'.

The Qianlong Emperor (reigned 1735-1796) collects ed clocks and 'sing-songs' with equally passionate if not obsessive interest. He was more drawn to clocks with musical and automaton functions rather than innovations in t.mes -keeping, and the London clockmaking trade in particular responding by producing models specifically tailored to the Chinese market, many of which are in Beijing Palace Museum today. Throughout the 18th century Western visitors commented on the vast quantity of t.mes pieces in the Imperial collects ion, among them George Staunton, secretary to the important Macartney Embassy to the Chinese Court in 1793, who observed:

Extraordinary pieces of ingenious and complicated mechanism...were exported annually to a considerable amount. Many of these costly articles, obtained by the Mandarines, under promise of protection from their inferiors, ultimately found their way into the palaces of the Emperor and his Ministers, in the hope of securing the favor of their superiors (cited in Catherine Pagani, Eastern Magnificence and European Ingenuity, Ann Arbor 2001 p. 102).

Important clocks destined for the Emperor were somet.mes s produced in pairs, and an automaton clock of identical model, also with movement by William Carpenter and with some additional floral elements, is in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (Fig. 1; M.1108-1926; illustrated in Ian White, English Clocks for the Eastern Markets, Ticehurst 2012, pp.231-32, figs. 8.21a-e). The V&A version has a more fully painted face and additional floral and paste-beaded elements emanating from the vases and crest, as well as an additional gilt and patinated bronze section above the drum that hides the bells below the striking figures, which may be lacking from the offered lot. The V&A clock is also fully gilded, whereas the present lot is primarily silvered, with traces of gilding on the lozenge-engraved base and elephants, and it is possible the case was originally partially or entirely gilt.

A pair of almost identical musical automaton clocks with movements by William Carpenter, with a single striking figure above the drum and the faces depicting a very similar architectural composition traditionally said to represent the façade of Carlton House, the Prince of Wales's London residence, was supplied to the Qianlong Emperor and is now in the Palace Museum, Beijing (Fig. 2; one illustrated in 淸宮钟表集萃: 北京故宮珍藏 [Clocks and watches of the Qing dynasty from the collects ion in the Forbidden City], Beijing 2002, p. 152). Another pair of elaborate gilt bronze automaton clocks by Carpenter of comparable size in the form of a large stage surmounted by a Catherine wheel is also in the Palace Museum (one illustrated in Simon Harcourt-Smith, A catalogue of various clocks, watches, automata, and other miscellaneous objects of European workmanship dating from the XVIIIth and the early XIXth centuries, in the Palace Museum and the Wu yingtien, Beijing, 1933 Fig. XII). Finally, two further related gilt bronze automaton clocks by Carpenter with the same composition of a drum section with principal dial flanked by subsidiary strike/silent and tune selection dials above a similar arcaded construction with moving figures are recorded: one formerly in the Hochschild collects ion (Fig. 3); another sold Replica Shoes 's London 6 July 2011, lot 100, which had a later, replaced base (Fig. 4); which is now in the Halim t.mes & Glass Museum, Evanston, Illinois, and now with a stylistically correct reproduction base (both illustrated in White, p.232, figs. 8.22, 8.23).

William Carpenter (d. 1817) worked at various addresses in Soho from 1770, and in 1781 he received honorary freedom in the Clockmakers' Company. In 1817 he retired to Hoxton.